The Nationwide cars race differently than the current Cup cars. With the bumpers lining up and because of a different engine cooling package, the Nationwide cars race in fast-moving two-car drafts all in a pack.

The two drivers that triggered the accident—Smith and Keselowski—are veterans of NASCAR racing. Larson, whose car flew into the fence, is a rookie who was competing in his first Nationwide race.

“I knew coming off (Turn) 4, I was going to have to throw a block,” Smith said. “That’s a product of the tandem racing. Brad knew he was going to make a move. That was all there was to it. … I was racing hard for a win.”

Keselowski said it was just the nature of the racing.

“He wants to win, too, and at the end it's just chaos,” Keselowski said. “There was obviously a big wreck with a lot of debris and cars torn up.”

The drivers are pretty much resigned to the fact that there could be an accident at the end of restrictor-plate races.

“It happens at the last lap,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said matter-of-factly after he left the infield medical center. “It always does. You can bet on it.”

The last driver killed in a NASCAR national series racing accident was Earnhardt’s father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., who died in crash at the end of the 2001 Daytona 500.

“It’s just the end of Daytona, going for the win … When you can see the checkered flag at Daytona, you’re going to block and you’re going to do everything you can to get back to the stripe,” Smith said.

“It just didn’t work out.”

NASCAR puts the cars through technical inspection twice during a race weekend to make sure they are built to certain safety standards.

“Our rear clip is laying on the racetrack, Kyle’s engine is in the fence—it was quite the wreck,” said Justin Allgaier. “We all knew it was getting busy at the front. You’ve got a lot of two-car tandems up there trying to go for that win.

“When you’re running that fast and you’re that close together, especially with all the speedy-dry that’s been on the racetrack and the headwind that we had, it’s not hard to get turned around and we see the results of that.”

Or, as Richard Childress Racing driver Brian Scott said simply: “That’s the nature of the beast at Daytona International Speedway.”